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eBooks compiled from top StackOverflow topics/answers (hewgill.com)
207 points by Tycho on Jan 23, 2011 | hide | past | favorite | 36 comments



A similar set-up I like is FAQoverflow:

http://www.faqoverflow.com/

Instead of eBooks, the content is visible directly in the browser.


I found that these were actually a bit tricky to convert to PDF, with even (normally) reliable tools like Calibre outputting PDFs with really small text... I stumbled across mobi2html, part of mobiperl (https://dev.mobileread.com/trac/mobiperl).

Apart from a couple of character encoding bugs, it seems to do a good job. I've uploaded the eBooks as html here:

http://alexpeattie.com/stackoverflow/html/

I've then been using FF/Chrome and a print-to-PDF driver to make PDFs (again, the only method that worked for me) which I'm uploading here:

http://alexpeattie.com/stackoverflow/

PDFs are taking a while to generate, esp. the larger ones. If anyone can find a faster method to convert the html files, let me know!


Neat, but .pdf's would have been nice...


I'm pretty happy to not see PDFs anymore -- especially for ebooks.

I can easily convert these to PDFs, but I can actually read them on my Kindle or iPad. I can't do that the other way around from PDF (though I technically can read a PDF on either, it's a far less pleasant experience).


What app do you use to read .mobi files on the iPad?


I don't own an ipad but mobi is pretty popular and easily converted so there should be an app to view them if the apple book app doesn't work.

Otherwise you can use calibre to convert it to epub.

(Kindle app might do it if it can load books as mobi is native kindle format)


enter the URL of the book in here and select your output format:

http://www.docspal.com/

(Edit: wow, that was terrible. Not one of the converts worked out properly. apologies if, like me, you downloaded them all)


The C one is using the most incredibly small font I've ever seen in a document. It took me a while to realize there was actual content in the pages. Then I zoomed in a thousand or so percent and could make out words.


Thanks for converting those to PDF, unfortunately none of the hyperlinks work either in browser, or in a PDF reader like OS X's preview. Don't know about Windows or Linux.


Just convert them with Calibre to whatever format you want. Mobi is much better than PDF as a starting point to convert to other formats, ebook formats in general are much more flexible and convertible. Converting from PDF to ebook is such a pain...


Yeah. I got them direct to my iPad though via Goodreader then exported them to Kindle app for reading.


For those who might be looking for a desktop application, Calibre http://calibre-ebook.com/ is an awesome FOSS ebook manager. Organizes, converts between formats, etc.


As a recent owner of a Sony e-reader, Calibre is really functional, but I don't think I've ever seen a worse interface.


While Calibre is a brilliant application for basic document management and conversion it should be mentioned that it is highly unlikely that it will convert a PDF eBook perfectly. I've got a bunch of free CS books I've collected over the years and outside of plain-text books it's struggled to convert everything.


Thanks!


For the curious of how this was compiled, and the source:

http://ghewgill.livejournal.com/145305.html


wget commands for all of the books: http://pastebin.com/raw.php?i=HWnj8hBC


or:

  wget -r -np -nd -A.mobi -erobots=off http://hewgill.com/~greg/stackoverflow/ebooks/
r = recursive

np = don't follow up to parent

nd = don't recreate directories locally

A = file extensions to dl

erobots = ignore robots, for some reason this site blocks wget

also, -i filename.txt will grab a list of urls for a file and download them, so no need for 'wget <url>'. adding -F will treat that local file as HTML and grab all the links out of it for download.


Is there a way to view these in my android?

Nevermind, figured it out. Downloaded Amazon Kindle, moved the downloaded file to the kindle folder in the sdcard.


What do people use for viewing .mobi files on linux?


I just found fbreader in the package manager which seems to work fine.


Calibre can do that and so many other things too (e.g. converting, etc).


The author should probably provide links to zipped versions of the file. Would definitely save his and other's bandwidth.


Mobipocket files are already compressed. Also, .mobi format files can be downloaded directly in the Kindle's web browser.


Most HTTP traffic is already gzipped.


Can you give any information or share any scripts about how you generated and converted these ?


I wrote a bit about how I generated these files here: http://ghewgill.livejournal.com/145305.html Also, there's a link to the source on Github.


I just submitted the page to HN, after seeing it in Spolsky or Atwood's twitter feed, I didn't design it. I think the curator has his contact details on that site though, if care to ask him directly.


Excellent! I just loaded a few on my Kindle, and they work great. Thanks!


The CSS book makes good 'light reading.' The others are interesting but it's hard to retain much, from such dense material.


I downloaded those where I already know the technology well. That way, I hope to pick up a couple of neat tips and tricks every once in a while when I have a few minutes to read.


would have paid for this


Well done, that's very neat and useful! Thanks.


What a great idea. Thanks


suggestions for a mobi viewer for Mac OS X?


brilliant idea, stackoverflow on kindle :)




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